I think this is what lifted Russia to “evil empire” status in Washington: the 2014 overthrow of Ukraine’s elected president (assisted by U.S. State Department’s Victoria Nuland) was successful — but for the interim president’s ban of the Russian language. The Crimean people immediately and overwhelmingly voted to separate from Ukraine and become part of Russia again. Pro-Russia, eastern Ukraine (Donbass) refused to privatize their natural resources (including oil, coal, fracking possibilities) and the bloody civil war between east and west Ukraine began. Workers of Ukraine said “no” to U.S. business interests.

Worse for Washington was Russia’s appeal to the Organizaton for Security and Cooperation in Europe for all Ukrainian parties to come together, forge a cease fire, and stop the bloodshed. The OSCE hammered out the Minsk Ceasefire, with all sides (including U.S. proxies in Kiev) agreeing to cease fire terms. In spite of violations and provocations (mostly by U.S. proxies), the cease fire remains.

To add insult to injury, Russia didn’t just bomb down ISIS, al-Qaida, and al Nusra extremists in Syria. In 2017, Russia, along with Turkey and Iran, called sides together for a cease fire — first to Astana, Kazakhstan, finally to Geneva under U.N. administration to work for, eventually, cease fire zones to the Syrian carnage. From pockets of carnage relief, larger patches of peace grew. Now, Syria is virtually without war. Russian troops have gone home.

Russia’s peace efforts make U.S. foreign policies look bad … and only an “evil empire” would do that to us.